Western is the theme people pick when they want something that works for a wide age range and doesn't need explaining. Then they go looking for supplies and find out the category is mostly hats. That's not a complaint, it's a planning fact, and it changes how you build the day.
Our western and cowboy collection holds seventeen items and about twelve of them are hats. There are three non-hat pieces worth building around, and the rest of the event comes from games you make yourself.
The hats are the budget line, so buy them on purpose
Cowboy hats here come in white, black, red, blue, green, and pink, plus a child size in assorted red or blue. Buying one color for everyone looks like a uniform. Buying two colors gives you teams for free, which is the simplest game structure there is. Red hats against blue hats, and you have not spent a minute planning.
The Rolled Brim Woven Straw Cowboy Hat is the one that photographs best and holds up outdoors. The Black Foam Felt Cowboy Hat is lighter and stays on a running child better than straw. For adults working the event, the Barn Dance Hat and the Pink Boa Cowgirl Hat make volunteers visible in a crowd, which matters more than it sounds like it does when a parent is looking for someone in charge.
The Rooster Hat is not a cowboy hat and is very much worth one order for whoever is running the games.
Western and cowboy party games you build from three items
Silver Sheriff Badges come a dozen to a pack and are the most useful thing in the set. A badge is a role, and a role is a game.
- Deputy tag: two kids wear badges and are it. Trade badges every round so nobody is stuck.
- Badge hunt: hide a dozen around the yard, first to find one gets deputized and helps hide them again.
- Barrel toss: Mini Western Barrel Containers come a dozen per pack. Line them up at three distances and throw bean bags or crumpled bandanas into them. Closest barrel is one point, farthest is five.
- Barrel relay: stack and unstack them against a clock. Works for the little kids who lose at throwing games.
- Jail: Economy Metal Handcuffs plus a taped square on the ground, thirty second sentences, one adult with the key at all times.
The barrels also work as the container for a favor at each place setting, which saves you buying bags.
Build the rest out of things you already have
The catalog is not going to hand you a full western event, so plan on borrowing. A stick horse race needs no supplies at all if you have pool noodles. A hay bale, if a family can source one, is a better photo backdrop and seating solution than anything you'd buy. Bandanas, rope, and a length of brown paper for a saloon sign cover the decor without a themed decor budget.
Safety notes worth reading before you order
Sheriff badges have pin backs. That is a sharp point and a small metal part, and both are a problem for children under three. Pin them on for the kids yourself rather than handing out loose badges, and count them back in at the end. Handcuffs are metal and genuinely lock, so one adult holds the key and the jail game does not run unsupervised. Straw hats can have wire in the brim on some styles, so check before the youngest kids wear them.
If toddlers are at the event, they get a hat and nothing else from this list.
The thing to leave off the plan
Leave out cap guns and toy pistols. Not because of the noise, though that's real, but because most schools, churches, and parks departments now have a policy that makes a toy gun a problem you did not want on a Saturday morning. You will spend the week before answering emails about it. A sheriff badge and a set of handcuffs deliver the entire cops-and-robbers feeling with none of that, and the kids do not notice the difference.
For hats, boas, and anything else costume side, the costumes and accessories collection goes deeper, and carnival supplies covers the game hardware.
Add TODAY at checkout to knock 10% off a single order.
